Desolation Lake

[new-icer]

Has anyone ever heard of Desolation Lake?  It is near Saratoga.  My buddy's girl live up there and he said he got permission to fish it.  Hen said it's a private lake and has some big perch in it.  If you have any info - fish type, depth, size of the lake please let me know.  Don't know if I want to make the drive from Cortland if it is not worth it.                              Thank You

[jflood]

I have ridden my mountain bike up in that area  many times but to be honest I have never ice fished it before. I do know that is it a shallow lake, 10-15 fow, and that it has bass, panfish and pickerel. I really would not bother making the trip to ice fish there. There are so many other lakes I would fish over desolation. I would make the trip if you had a housing. You could easily drive a few short miles over to The Great Sacandaga. That might be worth the trip. Hope that helps.

[coldbum]

I believe there are some decent sized crappie in Desolation. From what I know ya have to hit it at early ice and work it very hard

[camo_fish]

the 2 times I've ice fished the lake, I was skunked both times. 
It normally is the 1st to freeze but I've not been out looking for ice yet.
Next weekend will be a different story, I'll be searching, then. 

[axle54]

Lake Desolation is not a private lake.  you can access it from a small beach across from the bar/restaurant as you get up to the lake. I belive this a town beach. It is relatively small and most of all SHALLOW...  15' being about the deepest. It does have a lot of shallow weedbeds and inlets.   Never heard of much going on fishing wise for this lake however. Either on the ice or open water.  I would say your better off going to Saratoga lake which is about 15-20 minutes from Lake Desolation.    The only thing going for lake Desolation is its higher altitude and tendency to freeze up and stay frozen.  But ice does not mean fish.